1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a drive device having flanges that restrict the position, in the transverse direction, of a recording tape that is wound around a hub.
2. Related Art
There is known a structure that prevents widening of the interval between a pair of flanges at a reel for a tab tape at which a tab tape, in which an electronic part is installed, is wound on a core that is provided between the pair of flanges that oppose one another in an axial direction. In this structure, due to the core being supported rotatably with respect to the pair of flanges and outer peripheries of the pair of flanges being spanned by a bridge portion, the interval between the pair of flanges is prevented from widening (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-67285).
By the way, the accuracy of restricting the position in the tape transverse direction that is required of the flanges is completely different for a tab tape and a magnetic tape. Tapes made of paper, deposited films formed by a thin film of an inorganic compound being deposited on a plastic film, composite sheets in which plural resin layers are successively layered, and the like are known as tab tapes. In addition, tapes that are structured by forming a wiring pattern on a base film that is a polyimide film or the like and providing an insulating protective film, or the like, and that are utilized in applications such as, for example, liquid crystal display panels or highly-integrated logic LSIs or the like, are known as tab tapes. On the other hand, a magnetic tape has a thickness of a slight several microns (5μ to 10 μm), and the base film is formed of PET, PEN, PA or the like. The rigidity of the base of the magnetic tape is markedly different from that of the tab tape, in view of causing the magnetic tape to slide along a magnetic head and reading magnetic data. Further, as compared with a tab tape, a magnetic recording tape is markedly weak with respect to effects due to external force that, in particular, the edges thereof receive from the flanges.
Moreover, although the tab tape is guided by the flanges at the time of take-up, the position of the tab tape is physically restricted in the transverse direction and longitudinal direction by another positioning means at the time of usage. On the other hand, for magnetic tapes, as a countermeasure to edge damage being caused due to the position in the transverse direction being restricted by tape guides at the time of use within a drive, there are also known drives that do not have positional restriction in the transverse direction of tape guides. Due thereto, markedly higher accuracy than that for tab tapes has been demanded in recent years for the accuracy of positional restriction in the transverse direction of flanges with respect to a magnetic tape. Moreover, from the standpoint of the aforementioned effects with respect to external force that the tape edges receive from the flanges, a level that is completely different than that for tab tapes is demanded also of the accuracy with respect to the deformation of flanges for a magnetic tape.